In terms of the street car fare is free for the first year and initial numbers are higher than expected so far.LOL . .don't remind me of the Streetcar to nowhere in MKE (I used to live in MKE and still have family there and visit often - so I am familiar with it). I am curious how it goes. I suspect it will probably be popular for the first year (as a curiosity and because the fare will be cheap), but after that it won't be used that much because it doesn't GO anywhere. If I drive my car downtown .. why hop on a streetcar to go to restaurant when I can just DRIVE and park close to that restaurant? Without good public transportation INTO a city (like you see with subways in major metropolitan areas), public transportation (especially RAIL) within a city is pointless.
Sure, the young urban millennials (those who want to live/work/play in a downtown area and before they get married and have kids and move to suburbs) probably will use it to get from their condos to restaurants, but not even sure how much it will be used for that. We'll see. If it doesn't see a lot of use, they won't be able to expand it to the places where it probably COULD be heavily used -- like running to the casino, the ball park, the new basketball stadium, the museums, the convention center. But they built it in the old gentrified "hipster" area of town.
The key is . .that there usually needs to be consumer DEMAND for something in order for it to take off. When that happens, private companies will be all over helping build/fund something like that. Without consumer demand, what problem is trying to be solved by the governments pushing rail? Is it more "green"? Maybe . .but most consumers don't care if their transportation is green. They care if gets them from Point A to Point B .. quickly, cheaply and efficiently without driving themselves.
What has been created from THAT demand? Services like Lyft and Uber . .NOT a train (or streetcar).
I like how Minneapolis does their rail system with it running to high traffic areas such as the football and baseball stadiums.
Going back on topic I think rail from Orlando to Tampa would work well. You have two high populated areas with major attractions on each end.